A Guiding Hand- Keeping a Project Moving
Students must do the work and discover the answers for themselves in projects. Going to the "university of Google" will just not teach them the life lessons and information they need to know. Teachers must support students in their learning, not the looking up of learning already finished.
There are three levels of discussion that should take place in a classroom and in a project:
Teacher to teacher: You have to take advantages of working together. Use the valuable time to come up with new ideas and methods on teaching the lesson and discussing what the students are learning. Even if you can not talk face-to-face, make sure you are taking time to talk about things over the phone, through a blog, or even send quick e-mails to keep in touch.
Student to student: They should be discussing what they are learning with each other, at the time of the learning. Allow conversation to go on during the project, not just at the end when the project is completed. By allowing them to talk through confusing information, they are learning the value of teamwork and collaboration.
Teacher to student: With project based learning, teaching whole group is not a normal everyday activity. This allows you to talk one on one or with groups to see how they are progressing and what they are learning. You are able to ask more direct questions to individual students and see what and how they are thinking.
Questions for checking in:
There are different types of questions when looking at how your students are progressing in their projects. There is procedural questions which ask "Are we staying on schedule?". There are teamwork questions, making sure that groups are getting along and working well with each other. Understanding questions are about observing groups, listening in to conversations, and asking those probing questions that check the understanding of students. Self-assessment questions encourage reflection on the project. Use journals or blogs to allow students to anomalously ask questions that they might not be comfortable asking out loud.
It is important to optimize technology, help with troubleshooting, and manage conflict when working within project based learning. Use the technology you chose to use during the project to its full ability. Make sure that the technology is helping students learn the information, instead of making it more difficult. Instead of solving problems for the students, help students 'troubleshoot' and try again when problems and set back occur in their project. By helping them become better problem solvers, we are preparing them for the real world. For project based learning to be a success, groups have to work well together. It's our job as the teacher to facilitate arguments that occur and help come to a solution. Students will have to work together in groups sometime, and if they learn now how to be good team players, they will make it far in the real world.
Our project deals a lot with teamwork and decision making. This chapter deals with how we can better solve problems that occur and keep our students on task, because this is quite a large unit and it is important to meet deadlines, so the students learn all the necessary information, in a way that they will actually remember it.
Your first paragraph made a powerful statement. It is imperative that students are the ones who are doing the discovering, questioning, and exploring through the information provided. However, through this exploration through tons of information, it is also important that teachers are there to help, support, and guide their students in their learning. The three types of conversation are essential ways that this type of work can be done in an effective way. Using your resources as teachers is one of the most important things we can do for our students. What a thoughtful reflection you have done!
ReplyDeleteI think that this chapter had a good insight into how to go about our projects. I agree that with our projects, a lot of teamwork and decision making had to be done. This chapter shows us how to work as a team and how to go about working as a team with our students.
ReplyDeleteI agree that student to student discussion is important because teamwork and good communication skills are real life skills they can use later in life as well. Troubleshooting is also a very good point instead of teachers giving students the answers. By allowing students to solve their own problems and by just giving them a little nudge they will learn to become more independent and innovative. Lastly, surveying group dynamics is important in keeping groups on task and working together. We as teachers must sometimes step in to aid arguments in a new direction.
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